TED Talk: Why Architects Need to Use their Ears / Julian Treasure

In architecture we talk about space and form. We talk about experience and meaning. All of these qualities are inextricably the sensory experience of light, touch, smell and sound. Sound expert Julian Treasure asks architects to consider designing for our ears, citing that the quality of the acoustics of a space affect us physiologically, socially, psychologically and behaviorally.

More after the break.

In this short talk, Treasure demonstrates how statistics reflect the sound qualities of space. The louder the spaces, such as hospitals, the more distracted the staff is and the less calm the patients are. Treasure also conducts a simulation that exposes the audience to what “reverberation” in a classroom can do to intelligibility of the speaker. He then follows that simulation with another in which the reverberation is reduced by 60% and the difference is startling. He stresses acoustics in educational environments and cites how education systems can improve simply by providing spaces that are more suitable for listening – for learning.

Treasure stresses that as designers of the environment, architects must consider our health in terms of the interference of sound, noise levels, and inadequate acoustics. He gives insight into the results of certain architectural choices and provides sensible solutions that consider how acoustics can be tailored to make spaces less chaotic auditorily.